" La Fourmaintrie " stands for François PITON, who is the proprietor. I am an avid collectors of antiques and especially French faience with Rouen decor.

During one of my many excursions to the antique markets, I found a faience figurine for salt , pepper and mustard with the mark FF. This figurine, is called a "crotteur" which name derives from the distinct position of the person and the exposed back.

The decor resembled very much those pieces I had in my house, but it looked much older and I thought I had bought a piece of Rouen.

Several months later I made the aquaintance of an antique dealer, who knew so much about all the different French faiences. He was truly a living "encyclopedia".

He spent many hours with me explaining the difference between recent and older production of desvres with Rouen decoration and the marks. He was also the one who convinced me to venture out in the world of the antique dealers. Yet it took me many more months before I had learned enough about the faience of desvres, and before I decided to "jump on the wagon" and start my own antique business.

Strangely enough, at this time it was relatively easy to find beautiful pieces of Desvres in Belgium.

Many years later, and after countless visits to the museums in Desvres and Rouen, and exchanging information with antique dealers and collectors, I really can be called specialist of Desvres faience.

One thing has not changed over the years, I'm always surprised by the number of people who visit my exhibitions, recognizing the old Rouen decor, but are confused when I tell them: "it is Desvres".

For the collectors, but also for antique dealers, I endly decided to write a reference guide (the only one for the moment) with the title: